Direct Loan Tools & Tips. How To Make the Direct Loan Program Work For You

Transcription

1 How To Make the Direct Loan Program Work For You

2 Wood Mason U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid Atlanta, GA

3 Agenda Processing Reporting Subsidized Usage Limit Applies (SULA) Reports Reconciliation & Program Year Closeout 3

4 Processing 4

5 Make sure your software setup at your school serves you well Correct Release New XML Schema 4.0b for award year % XML Schema validation Updates Patches Connected to other institutional systems or offices Network Does everyone that needs access have it and at the appropriate level Stand-alone PCs Does everyone that needs the software have it 5

6 Make sure your software setup at your school serves you well Common Record Reporting & Attended Campuses Enrollment School Code Origination fees 1.073% on Direct Subsidized & Unsubsidized loans FIRST disbursed on or after October 14, 2014 and before October 1, % on Direct PLUS Loans FIRST disbursed on or after October 1, 2014 and before October 1, 2015 SULA data reported accurately and appropriately 6

7 Make sure your Financial Aid Contacts on the COD Website are up to date and all contact information is accurate Program Contacts You can create Program Contacts or change contact information for your Program Contacts via the COD Website Financial Aid Administrator Hard-coded and NOT changeable on the COD Website Change the Financial Aid Administrator via eligcert.ed.gov 7

8 8 Direct Loan Tools & Tips

9 Make sure your Options as set on the COD Website are correct and appropriate to serve you well Options link under the School Tab, School Information menu Program Options Master Promissory Note (MPN) Multi-year functionality Single-year functionality Web Activity Response Financial Aid Administrator Import the COD Response from a COD Website transaction Y or N 9

10 Make sure your Options as set on the COD Website are correct and appropriate to serve you well Non-award year specific StudentLoans.gov Website options e-mpn participation Y or N Loan Origination Record (LOR) required before signing an MPN E-MPN message to the borrower Electronic Entrance Counseling participation Y or N Response receipt daily or on-demand 10

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12 Make sure your Options as set on the COD Website are correct and appropriate to serve you well Award year specific StudentLoans.gov Website options Loan Period e-mpn participation Up to 4 or Other Participate in the Electronic PLUS Loan Application process Parent and/or Graduate or Professional Student Y or N Begin and end dates PLUS Application message Response receipt daily or on-demand 12

13 13 Direct Loan Tools & Tips

14 Make sure your school profile on the COD Website is correct School General Information screen TG mailbox Funding data DUNS number Entity number Academic calendar 14

15 Reporting 15

16 FINISH WHAT YOU START Timely reporting Do you have a process in place to monitor your transmissions to and from COD? Are you reporting your Loan Origination Records (LORs) and Actual Disbursement data promptly? Actual disbursement data (DRI = TRUE) MUST be reported to COD within 15 days of the event Are you importing your COD responses (ALL responses) daily to keep your award data up to date and matched to COD data? Are you identifying/correcting rejected data, and returning the corrections to COD promptly? 16

17 FINISH WHAT YOU START Identify and correct rejected data Rejected Direct Loan disbursement data can create unsubstantiated cash Rejected Direct Loan disbursement data can prevent an increase in your CFL and G5 available balance Use Batch screens to help you identify rejected data You can filter a document on rejected data alone Pay attention to your software Import Edit Report if it provides one or run a scan of your database looking for rejected data regularly 17

18 Order of processing You can originate a Direct Loan award prior to the borrower completing other required tasks You cannot disburse until ALL eligibility requirements are met MPN Entrance Counseling (if required) Enrollment status Citizenship status 18

19 Order of processing You can originate a Direct PLUS Loan with a credit decision of Denied The loan will be accepted and processed by COD if it passes other program and COD edits and will appear on the COD Website under the borrower s account A Warning Edit of #036 will be returned You cannot disburse until ALL credit requirements are met, i.e., securing an accepted endorser, successfully appealing the Denied credit result, AND completing PLUS Counseling 19

20 Direct Loans Tools & Tips Direct PLUS Loans The new Credit Requirements Met flag should be your focus Confirms all credit related requirements have been met Can t disburse until this field is flagged Y New COD Reject Edit Code #217 Sent in a Common Record Response (RS), a PLUS Request Response (SP), and a COD Web Response (WB) Also on the new Credit Status Response (CS) If this field remains N for any length of time you need to start looking to see if there is something amiss Has he or she secured an endorser? Is the endorser approved or denied? Has he or she started an appeal? What is the status? 20

21 Direct Loans Tools & Tips Lots more detail on Direct PLUS Loans in the Direct PLUS Loans A To Z session later today Y all Come! 21

22 SULA

23 23 Direct Loan Tools & Tips

24 SULA Accurate reporting of your academic year and award start/end dates (loan period) is vital to the accurate calculation of a Subsidized Usage Period Loan periods should ONLY be those terms/payment periods in which the borrower received funds Your Academic Year is school defined It MUST be a minimum of 30 weeks of instruction and 24 semester (36 quarter) hours of credit for a credit hour based program OR 26 weeks and 900 clock-hours of instruction for a program measured in clock-hours There is no credit hour minimum for a graduate program 24

25 SULA You MUST reduce all anticipated disbursements NOT made to $0 You MUST reduce the award to the amount actually disbursed Your academic year number of weeks should match the days in your academic year start/end date spread Stay familiar with the Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) GEN

26 SULA You MUST report ALL required origination and disbursement data Some data can be reported in different formats but ONLY ONE TIME Don t report Program Length in weeks AND months Remember the formula for Subsidized Usage Period is the number of days in the Loan Period over the number of days in your Academic Year It is time and not dollars that figure into the calculation Dollars figure into the calculation ONLY when you award a full academic year loan limit for a period less than an academic year 26

27 Reports 27

28 Reports Reports are vital to efficient and accurate Direct Loan Program participation Reports are described in Volume VI, Section 8 of the COD Technical Reference Reports are posted to your school NewsBox on the COD Website and/or transmitted to your SAIG mailbox Reports can be received in several different formats and coverage periods select the one that works best for your school 28

29 COD Reports 30-Day Warning Report Identifies originated Direct Loans needing a linked MPN or actual disbursement or both to book Identifies MPNs received with no linked Direct Loan Origination Monthly in your SAIG mailbox or COD Website School NewsBox 29

30 COD Reports Pending Disbursement Listing Report A weekly report that identifies anticipated disbursements that should be reported to COD as actual disbursements or reduced to $0 Provides a list of pending disbursements 45 days in the future or any date in the past Multiple format options Delivered to your SAIG mailbox and posted to the COD Web In your School NewsBox 30

31 COD Reports Direct Loan Actual Disbursement List A weekly report that identifies actual disbursements accepted by, and posted to, COD Saturday to Friday reporting window Monitor to ensure actual disbursement amounts and actual disbursement dates match exactly actual disbursement amounts and actual disbursement dates that have been entered on student accounts Multiple format options Delivered to your SAIG mailbox and posted to the COD Web In your School NewsBox 31

32 COD Reports Additional weekly reports Counseling Report PLUS Application Report Master Promissory Note (MPN) Report Expired MPN Report MPNs Due To Expire Report Weekly Credit Status Report Direct Subsidized Loan Usage Change 32

33 Reconciliation & Program Year Closeout 33

34 The secret to Reconciliation Know where the money is! 34

35 Reconciliation The School Account Statement is the document that you MUST reconcile to Reflects the Department s official Ending Cash Balance (ECB) The Financial Aid Office staff and the Business Office staff should check-in with each other regularly and frequently Return funds promptly and appropriately To the correct Program and Award Year Return funds electronically via G5 NO PAPER CHECKS! If returned for a regulatory reason you MUST reduce the disbursement/award in COD accordingly 35

36 Reconciliation Regularly run a report out of your financial aid system to identify any data NOT in an accepted status Weekly/Bi-weekly Resolve ALL rejected data and submit to COD promptly Monitor disbursement data to ensure it is flagged as actual disbursement data appropriately 30-Day Warning Report Pending Disbursement List COD Website Action Queue Reconcile internally regularly and frequently 36

37 Reconciliation The Direct Loan SAS Disbursement Detail On Demand Report can help you between monthly SAS runs SAS disbursement level data only Generated upon request via a COD Website Data Request Year-To-Date, Month-To-Month, or Date Range Format options Import into a report reader for best view of data Download the reader and instructions from the COD website 37

38 Reconciliation COD funding screens that monitor cash/disbursements School Summary Information Immediate look at any unsubstantiated cash School Summary Financial Information Screen Dynamic view that emulates the SAS Cash Summary data Cash Activity Screen Data on EVERY drawdown from G5 for an academic year School Funding Information Screen Beginning CFL and increases amount/date Dynamic data Available G5 balance 38

39 Program Year Closeout Closeout deadline date is the last business day in July of the second year of the award year pair The closeout deadline date for award year is July 31, days after your last award year end date COD sends a Remaining Balance communication until your ECB = $0 and you receive a $0 Balance communication Upon receipt of your last SAS reflecting your $0 ECB closeout on the COD Balance Confirmation Screen 39

40 Program Year Closeout DON T WAIT FOR THE CLOSEOUT DATE! Closeout the Program Year as soon as you are finished with processing for that award year COD will be happy to re-open a closed Program year if you need to make any unforeseen adjustments Remember all your disbursement data MUST be in to COD within 15 days of the event Your COD Reconciliation Specialist can help you with any issues, concerns, or questions you may have for Program Year Closeout or Reconciliation 40

41 Wood Mason U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid Atlanta, GA

42 Appendix 42

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46 School of Hard Knocks 46